Woody De Othello
Woody De Othello (b. 1991, Miami) works primarily in clay and bronze, manipulating mundane objects such as clocks, calendars, phones, and box fans to transform them into warped, uncanny repositories of psychic significance. This approach builds on the West and Central African concept of nkisi, in which objects contain and release spiritual forces; for Othello, each work is a vessel, even when it is physically sealed. His two-dimensional works also present surrealistic distortions of scale and temporality, invoking the familiar but confounding legibility. He lives in Oakland, California.
Recent institutional solo exhibitions include John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Sheboygan, Wisconsin (2021–22) and San José Museum of Art, California (2019). His work was included in the 2022 Whitney Biennial, Quiet as It’s Kept. Othello’s work is represented in the collections of the Aïshti Foundation, Beirut; Baltimore Museum of Art; Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh; Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, California; Dallas Museum of Art; de Young Museum, San Francisco; Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; MAXXI – National Museum of 21st Century Art, Rome; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Pérez Art Museum Miami; Rennie Museum, Vancouver; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; San José Museum of Art; Seattle Art Museum; Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC; and Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.
Othello’s work is currently on view in Orange County Museum of Art’s 2025 California Biennial: Desperate, Scared, But Social. Woody De Othello: coming forth by day will be on view at the Pérez Art Museum Miami from November 13, 2025 through August 30, 2026.
Born 1991, Miami
Lives in Oakland, California
EDUCATION
2017
MFA, California College of Arts, San Francisco
2013
BFA, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, Florida
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2025
Pérez Art Museum Miami, Woody De Othello: coming forth by day
Karma, Los Angeles, Tuning the Dial
2024
Stephen Friedman Gallery, London, Faith Like a Rock
2022
Karma, New York, Maybe tomorrow
2021
John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Sheboygan, Wisconsin, Hope Omens
Jessica Silverman, San Francisco, Looking In
2020
Nina Johnson, Miami, Coming to Light
Pippy Houldsworth Gallery, London, The Box
2019
Karma, New York, To live in hope
San José Museum of Art, California, Woody De Othello: Breathing Room
2018
Jessica Silverman, San Francisco, Living Room
2016
Quality, Oakland, California, Lights Out Night Out
Old New England, Berkeley, California, Real Life Still Life
UFO Gallery, Berkeley, California, Patty’s Mashed Potatoes
2015
Unit 1, Lake Worth, Florida, It’s Going To Be Okay
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2025
San José Museum of Art, California, Tending and Dreaming: Stories from the Collection
Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle, England, From Joséphine Bowes: Trendsetters and Trailblazers
Kunstmuseum Appenzell, Switzerland, Sound of the Earth: Ceramics in Contemporary Art
Montalvo Arts Center, Saratoga, California, When the World is Beautifully Strange
Orange County Museum of Art, Costa Mesa, California, California Biennial, Desperate, Scared, But Social
2024
Gallerie Nazionali di Arte Antica and Aïshti Foundation, Palazzo Barberini, Rome, Day for Night: New American Realism, curated by Massimiliano Gioni and Flaminia Gennari Santori
Seattle Art Museum, Washington, Poke in the Eye: Art of the West Coast Counterculture
70 Main Street, Thomaston, Maine, A Particular Kind of Heaven
Anderson Ranch Arts Center, Snowmass Village, Colorado, From There to Here, curated by Meriwether McClorey
Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York, Material World, curated by Gina Beavers
Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco, Fraenkenstein
NIAD, Richmond, California, We Make Art in Richmond
2023
Stephen Friedman Gallery, London, The Place I Am
Venus Over Manhattan, New York, Retinal Hysteria
University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor, Hear Me Now: The Black Potters of Old Edgefield, South Carolina
de Young Museum, San Francisco, Crafting Radicality: Bay Area Artists from the Svane Gift
Berkeley Art Museum & Pacific Film Archive, California, What Has Been and What Could Be: The BAMPFA Collection
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Conversation Pieces
Jessica Silverman, San Francisco, California, A Growing Season
Museum of Arts and Design, New York, Funk You Too! Humor and Irreverence in Ceramic Sculpture
Canal Projects, New York, Dwelling
Santa Barbara Museum of Art, California, WARES! Extraordinary Ceramics and the Ordinary Home
Museum of Craft and Design, San Francisco, Fight and Flight: Crafting a Bay Area Life
Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Hear Me Now: The Black Potters of Old Edgefield, South Carolina
2022
San Luis Obispo Museum of Art, California, Home/Work
Hayward Gallery, London, Strange Clay: Ceramics in Contemporary Art
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Hear Me Now: The Black Potters of Old Edgefield, South Carolina
Smithsonian American Art Museum and Renwick Gallery, Washington, DC, This Present Moment: Crafting a Better World
Timothy Taylor, London, A Thing for the Mind
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, Whitney Biennial, Quiet as It’s Kept
Pence Gallery, Davis, On the Edge: CCA Clay
2021
San José Museum of Art, Our whole, unruly selves
Deitch Projects, New York, Clay Pop
Jessica Silverman, San Francisco, We Are Here
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Close to Home: Creativity in Crisis
2020
Nassima-Landau Project, Tel Aviv, High Voltage
Marin Museum of Contemporary Art, Novato, California, Justice
Karma, New York, (Nothing but) Flowers
Matthew Brown Gallery, Los Angeles, Material Conditions
Center for Craft, Asheville, North Carolina, Sleight of Hand
NCECA Conference, Richmond, The Burdens of History
2019
33rd Ljubljana Biennial of Graphic Arts, Slovenia
Natalie and James Thompson Art Gallery, San José State University, California, Planned Obsolescence
Friedman Benda, New York, Blow Up, curated by Felix Burrichter
2018
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, Bay Area Now
Jessica Silverman at 288 Pacific, San Francisco, Horizon Lines
Jessica Silverman, San Francisco, Kinship
Front International Cleveland Triennial For Contemporary Art, Ohio
Karma, New York, Kinder Gentler Nation
2017
Sonoma State University Art Gallery, California, Working TWO Scale: New Bay Area Ceramic Sculpture
Johansson Projects, Oakland, California, Matt Kleberg and Woody De Othello
Gallery T293, Rome, Homo Mundus Minor
Alter Space at Minnesota Street Projects, San Francisco, To Speak of Trees
2015
5&J Gallery, Lubbock, Texas, Grayscale
FATVillage Projects, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Possessed
2014
Unit 1, Lake Worth, Florida, The Contenders
FATVillage Projects, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Monstrous Strange
White Space Gallery, West Palm Beach, Florida, Outside The Box 2
2012
Legal Art, Miami, Four Minutes, Thirty Three Seconds
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Aïshti Foundation, Lebanon
Baltimore Museum of ArtCarnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh
Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento
Dallas Museum of Art
de Young Museum, San Francisco
High Museum of Art, Atlanta
Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston
Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami
John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Sheboygan, Wisconsin
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
MAXXI – National Museum of 21st Century Art, Rome
Montreal Museum of Fine Arts
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Museum of Fine Arts Boston
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia
Pérez Art Museum, Miami
Rennie Collection, Vancouver
Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
San José Museum of Art, California
Seattle Art Museum
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut
AWARDS AND GRANTS
2018
SFO International Terminal Boarding Area G Outdoor Terrace Commission
2017
Toby Devan Lewis Award
2016
Barclay Simpson Award, California College of the Arts, San Francisco
RESIDENCIES
2020
John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Sheboygan, Wisconsin
2018
Liquitex Research Residency, Minnesota Street Project, San Francisco
2016
Old New England, Berkeley, California
2015
Pentaculum Resident, Arrowmont, Gatlinburg, Tennessee
2014
Sculpture Artist in Residence, Armory Arts Center, West Palm Beach, Florida
Publications
2023
Woody De Othello, Maybe tomorrow
Karma, New York
2021
Woody De Othello
Karma/Jessica Silverman, New York
2018
Woody De Othello, Where I Live Inside
Karma, New York
